Knowing failing is possible LO8088

John Paul Fullerton (jpf@mail.myriad.net)
Mon, 24 Jun 1996 23:40:01 +0000

A few days ago, I had a scripture verse brought to my attention through
chance. The verse was Luke 16:9, "And I say unto you, Make to yourselves
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that,, when ye fail, they may
receive you into everlasting habitations."

Hmm. Right now I'm having some revisions of what I thought this meant.
Perhaps due to the notice of Thomas Kuhn's death, "when ye fail" seems
like it may mean when one dies. In any case, I'm not claiming to
understand what the verse means; that is not the point of this note! The
start of my thinking about failing was the phrase, "when ye fail". It
seemed so matter-of-fact and inevitable, and I resisted the idea, thinking
that I didn't plan on failing. These were momentary thoughts.

Within a few days time, during Rick's vacation :) I went to a local golf
shop for lunch. On one of the tables was a golf publication, and I began
looking at the articles. One article, written by a sport psychologist,
talked about the importance of committment and the beneficial effect of a
game plan. She began with a list of "basics" that serve as the preparation
for developing a game plan. Among the basics were knowing

[Host's Note: I'm just back from a golfing vacation, so you have my
attention, John! ...Rick]

the distance to the holes
how far one is hitting with each club
where targets are along the course
where to aim so that error is as little costly as possible
the condition of the grass on the course
the outlay of the greens and what way the golf ball is likely to go

Particularly the point about aiming for places where a mistake would be
minimized brought to mind the tentative nature of the game and the fact
that each effort was (Usually) intended to only get partway to the goal.

When I saw failing in this light (incomplete action or error in physically
doing), failure seemed much more obvious, and planning seemed more
obvious, too.

To me, the application to learning organizations or for myself, is to put
forth work in a way that acknowledges the possibility of failure, takes
that into account and stays on course. Should failure actually ever
happen, should a hiccup in the transformation be discovered, it becomes
part of the past. This is added lest it seem like planning with awareness
of possible failure means failing won't happen. The positive side is the
intention for excellence.

Have a nice day
John Paul Fullerton
jpf@myriad.net

-- 

"John Paul Fullerton" <jpf@mail.myriad.net>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>